ProBikeGarage was recommended to us as a useful add-on for Strava users. We have previously covered a variety of Strava extensions, which for the most part help to visualize and display activity data. ProBikeGarage is unique in that the value it provides is not specific to the activities and workouts, but instead focuses on the GEAR!
Who Is ProBikeGarage For?
The name should give it away slightly, but the app is designed to assist serious cyclists. Casual users are unlikely to find value in the app since they simple will not care about most of the metrics that are tracked. However, if you have multiple components on your bike cost hundreds of dollars each, you are a likely candidate for using the app in some fashion.
Primarily, the ProBikeGarage app is used to monitor the usage of each individual component on your bike. This is important since various parts require routine maintenance on different schedules. A front fork of a mountain bike might have recommendations to be cleaned and rebuilt every 50 hours of riding, while disc brakes require bleeding every 2 years. No one wants to waste time and money maintaining a component that has no real need to be maintained.
Keeping track of these various timelines can be confusing, although it can be done. The biggest competition for Pro Bike Garage is a detailed spreadsheet or notebook that sits in your actual garage right next to your bike. Even so, if you just mark down when the last time you swapped something out you still need to measure that against the amount the bike has been ridden and what type of wear has really been put on the item. This is what ProBikeGarage does. By separating each component into its own section you can link it to your actual ride history and show what type of and how much wear it has been put under.
The app is available for both in the Apple App store and Google Play stores, and costs $2.99. This is a steal of a price given, and it’s hard to believe the developer is making much money given the niche set of users who it is designed for